Petrified wood table- shapes, profiles and joints
Bill Tindall, E.Tn.
Arcs were sawed on band saw. After years of experimentation I have settled on a 3/8"-6tpi blade for this kind of work, not coincidently the same blade used in the Headley shop. Hand tool proficiency has helped band sawing. I can now hug the edge of a line with some confidence.
Convex arcs on legs and stretcher are faired with a hand plane, another Headly shop technique. Don't overlook the ease of this approach. I was in a friends shop yesterday, the one that made the magnificent desk in the Gallery. He immediately noticed the refinement of the convex curves and asked how I did them. We cut an example on his saw and I faired it in a few seconds. The secret is to use the saw tooth marks as planing guides and adjust planing to remove them uniformly.
Concave arcs were smoothed with a curved spoke shave. I think the nice handles on the LV tool make it the best.
The outside leg profile was made with the bit shown, currently available from Eagle, 3/4" height. The bearing rides above center, empirically adjusted for height. Adjust the height so that the second pass leaves a small ridge which is sanded or filed smooth.
M&T joints were made with Domino, an ideal tool for this task.
In the next post I will describe where I ran out of skill and motivation.